Bush: Iraq War Longer, More Expensive Than I Expected

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush delivered a broad and upbeat defense of his Mideast policies on Friday, yet cautioned that President-elect Barack Obama will inherit threats from Iran's nuclear programs, an unfinished Israeli-Palestinian peace accord and a fragile democracy in Iraq.

Bush said his administration has been "ambitious in vision, bold in action and firm in purpose" _ although not always popular _ in its approach to the volatile region. Some efforts have not always gone according to plan, and in some areas the administration has fallen short of its goals, he said in a speech at the annual Saban Forum, a gathering on Middle East policy sponsored by the Brookings Institution.

"For example, the fight in Iraq has been longer and more costly than expected," Bush said. "The reluctance of entrenched regimes to open their political systems has been disappointing, and there have been unfortunate setbacks at key points in the peace" talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Still, Bush proclaimed that the Mideast was a freer, more hopeful place today than it was when he took office in 2001. He cited examples: The Lebanese are free from Syria's military occupation; Libya's nuclear weapons equipment is locked away in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are emerging as centers of commerce; Iran is facing greater pressure from the international community than ever before; and the threat from terrorist organizations like al-Qaida has been curtailed.

Administration critics say Bush's view of the region is rosier than reality.

"If you look down the challenges that President Obama will face, he will have to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process almost from the ground up," said Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon analyst now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "He will be dealing with an unstable Iraq, subject to growing Iranian influence, and an al-Qaida, which has been sharply weakened, but not defeated."

"I can't think of a public opinion poll that does not show a sharp deterioration in the U.S. position in the Middle East," Cordesman said, characterizing Bush's remarks as an attempt at "spinning a foreign policy legacy from hell."

On Iraq, Bush defended the U.S.-led invasion on grounds the world could not have risked leaving Saddam Hussein's power unchecked. The president said that while it's true that Saddam was not connected to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the decision to oust him cannot be viewed in isolation.

"In a world where terrorists armed with box cutters had just killed nearly 3,000 people, America had to decide whether we could tolerate a sworn enemy that acted belligerently, that supported terror and that intelligence agencies around the world believed had weapons of mass destruction," Bush said, referring to intelligence reports that later proved false.

"It was clear to me, it was clear to members of both political parties, and to many leaders around the world that after Sept. 11, that was a risk we could not afford to take," the president said about the Iraq war, which has claimed the lives of more than 4,200 U.S. military personnel.

Bush called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the most "vexing" problem in the region.

He noted that he was the first U.S. president to call for a Palestinian state and said he sees progress toward reaching a two-state solution. The Israelis and Palestinians agreed last November at a meeting in Annapolis, Md., to reach some agreement by the end of the year. But after months of publicly insisting that an agreement could still be forged, the Bush administration has conceded that it will hand the fragile, unfinished U.S.-backed peace effort to Obama.

More than 180 people attended Bush's speech, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; and members of Congress.

Comments

[Mulvaney]

Iran has been the biggest winner in the region, Maybe we can give them a bill for services rendered on our way out the door.

[haramagoti]

There's almost too much history being re-written real time here to keep track.

Clinton nearly had a Mid-East Peace Plan, he was extremely close, but much like your response to Iran's written request to simply acknowledge their existence, you steadfastly ignored both, something you came into office with a reputation for, keeping the operations of government at bay, arms length, if you will, even while you were in charge of all of those very operations.

Your blatant grasping for straws to justify what every conceivable physical sense and psychological sensibility had long told you we had no right to do, for September 11th retribution, to invade an unrelated Country on the basis of their resident head madman, simply would have invited someone to invade us for you being our resident head madman. Waving off your every last responsibility to Angler, which was the only thing you accomplished in the last eight years, besides the beer and hard liquor the tax payers bought you that you drank, had a side of the consequences fall on you without falling onto him, Cheney, because he didn't write off being President, he simply took advantage of your resignation to occupy the post you were paid to occupy. (con't)

[haramagoti]

Listen to yourself. Now we invaded Iraq so that Iran would be intimidated. You only say that because Iraq is kicking us out and the idea of having a base so close to Iran won't have panned out, and now that Israel is going rogue on you, you realize you've both destabilized an entire region while forfeiting the chance to monitor it beyond your sky toys and the radar toy you recently gave Israel.

What makes people nauseous about you is that you became a murderer in our collective name, effectively making the American public complicit in that murder, that torture, that poisoning and that racism. You don't like Cheney yourself, but you no longer have to defend him. He was the worst President in United States history, not you.

"The president said that... it's true that Iraq's Saddam Hussein was not connected to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks"

I believe that's all the grieving military families needed to hear from you, and the victims families from September 11th, 2001.

[Citizen-Jane]

Go figure George.
4,200 lives later. I think that they paid the ultimate price for this war.

[LiberTLover]

And those were just American lives. Don't forget the hundreds of thoudands of Iraqis that lost their lives. They were just as innocent.

[ReHoover51]

thank you for mentioning the real horror in this terrorist attack we did!!!
1000s and 1000s and 1000s of innocent men women and children murdered and not a word from this war criminal president!

[littlepuffycloud]

"Duh" says His Chimpiness­...

[Taan]

Unfortunately, history of Saddam's capture is wholly bogus. He was captured by the Kurdish militia and held for weeks before being deposited in a countryside hidey hole, where U.S. forces were instructed to find him looking like a physical wreck. The military spent hours searching a small country plot before stumbling on him in a hole "out of which he could not escape after having been placed there." Had not the obliging Kurds captured him, with his access to billions, it is reasonable to conjecture that he might never have entered the legal system of any country. When the U.S. disbanded the military with their weapons in tact, and absent the iron fist of Iraq's leadership, the borders became sieves of the influx of problems, not the least of which were disaffected Iraqis and their sympathizers. We in effect ordered up our adversaries and are still paying in dollars, blood and lives for this horrendous miscalculation.

[ReHoover51]

did u see him when they pulled him out of the spider hole? my kids said "is that the terrible horrible man we were after? - he looks pathetic!!!" he was no threat ... bush lied us to war and should be tried for war crimes ... 4500 lives for saddam??? are u kidding?

[RoveRoveRoveYourBoat]

...how do your no-bid war profit buddies feel about it ...you blood-soaked criminal monster.

[ReHoover51]

how many of us are there? will u join an organization to make sure bush is tried for war crimes???
write back contact info!!!

[MajorKong]

Well there's the understatement of the year.

[lunchlady]

Remember all those cars with flags waving from the window or the antennae? They've all been faded and taken down years ago. I hope all that jingoistic glee about invading two countries and making a huge mess and spending oodles of money we can't afford has faded too.
I may never recover from Bush's reelection in 2004. The US is full of foolish people who can't face the facts. I am cautiously encouraged by Obama's victory, but cautious is the main word there.
I fear that too many people actually enjoy war, or at least the idea of it.
The justifiable pride of the WWII vets still helps bring reinforcements to the recruiting offices, plus the economy.

[chronic]

I would really love to slap him silly.

[ajax2]

Will the economic and business professors of GW Bush come forward and take a bow.

[sixx]

How could Harvard, Yale ever produce such an ignoramus? Is it all legacy, or are these institutions failing miserably?

[cornagainstsorcery]

Hey, Bush, remember those hundreds of thousands of protesters assembled in the streets of DC every month leading up to the war? You know, the ones you dismissed as a "focus group"? Well, this is exactly what we expected and one of the reasons we opposed the war from the start. So shuv it.

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

"The fight in Iraq has been longer and more costly than expected" does that mean he thought that this war was.is a game!? He had no real plan going or one to get out! Democracy has to be wanted by the people not forced upon them. This is all BS and will last for years to come.

[bobbysgurl]

Dubya told Charlie Gibson he went into the war unprepared. So, if he wasn't prepared, he went into the war unprepared for the outcome.

[waverly]

Republicans, as a whole, are spineless callous people who never "own" their failures but will instead blame others. Bush, a treacherous dictatorial twerp, will never "own" the death and destruction he has caused but will simply pass the buck -- "don't blame me, it's not my fault".

[impik]

Im.be.cile.